Five stats that stand out: Introducing new Orioles pitcher Wade Miley

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While Miley’s four-seam fastball has produced inconsistent results throughout his career, his two-seamer has been a pretty strong ground-ball pitch this season. In 2016, it’s yielding ground balls on 43.48 percent of balls in play, down from 48.13 percent in his career, but still closer to his career rates than his four-seamer. The two-seam fastball is a pitch Miley could rely on in front of the Orioles’ strong infield defense, and possibly lower the .354 batting average off of it this year. He’ll be playing before an upgraded infield from the one he played with in Seattle, so it’s possible fewer of those can go for base hits. That all really comes down to whether Miley can command the pitches in the strike zone, or if he’s leaving them in meaty parts of the plate. [Source: Brooks Baseball]

Only 16 qualified pitchers in the majors have a higher chase rate than Miley’s 33.7 percent, and as his new manager Buck Showalter says, that’s where you get major league hitters out. However, his contact rate out of the zone is 66.7 percent, meaning he’s not getting a ton of swinging strikes out there. Miley is 73rd out 95 qualifiers with 46 percent of his pitches in the strike zone, with that high contract rate indicating his misses aren’t too far out of the zone and are still susceptible to finding barrels. In the short term, it’ll be interesting to see how the Orioles plan to have him attack a Rangers lineup that has been jumping on fastballs all series, and whether he stays in the zone with them, if his command allows. [Source: Fangraphs]